Youth clubs

Youth advice and information centres

Find out about our youth advice and information centres, where they are and what advice they can offer you.

Dorset Award and Dorset Award Plus

Find out about the Dorset Award and Dorset Award Plus.

Work towards an award by volunteering or taking part in a project in your local community.

Youth offer

We have a duty to make sure there are enough local opportunities and positive activities for young people to engage with outside school. 

Targeted youth offer

Through our localities we will:

• speak to schools and other agencies and work with young people they have identified as needing extra help
• deliver evidence-based group work programmes that help young people address issues and improve their self-confidence
• promote social action, helping young people play an active role in their communities through volunteering or having a say in how local communities are run

Support to the sector from strategic lead

We will have a strategic lead who will be the single point of contact for all organisations, providing things to do and places to go for young people in Dorset. They will advise and support community organisations.

Training

We provide youth work training to groups and individuals across the county. Contact our Training and Development Youth Worker for more information.

Dorset youth fund grant 2021 to 2022

The Dorset youth fund grant is a project and activity fund for youth centres and clubs.
 
This fund is to support community-based youth centres and clubs to fund 80 to 100% of total project costs:

• to deliver a range of positive activities for young people
• with COVID19 recovery plans

We offer from £500 to £5,000 to support the council deliver the priorities set out in our Children Young People and Families plan 2020 to 2023. 

We are open to all applications that meet our criteria.

Support for Dorset Youth Association

We support Dorset Youth Association. They deliver infrastructure support to voluntary youth workers and clubs across Dorset.

On average 60 clubs and groups benefit from a wide range of support; this includes DBS clearances and free training around:

• child protection
• safeguarding
• first aid
• health and safety
• governance

Dorset Safeguarding Children Board and Dorset Children's Trust Board

The voluntary and community sector are represented on the Dorset Safeguarding Children Board and the Dorset Children's Trust Board.

The Dorset Safeguarding Children Board was set up to make sure key agencies work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in Dorset.

The Dorset Children's Trust Board is a local partnership that brings together organisations responsible for children, young people and families to work together to improve the lives of all children and young people in Dorset.

Community Offer

We voted to stop providing building-based open access youth work. We offered the youth centre buildings to local groups for community use and have transferred them where local groups had a viable business case.

Additional resources for communities

See our online tools and resources for supporting communities, which include tools for funding and running a club. 

Privacy notice for Children's Services youth training

Find our Children's Services youth training privacy notice.